My Next Inning: Coach & Mentor

Engineer. Brand Manager. Tech Entrepreneur. Tech CMO. These have been the innings in my career so far. After 35+ years in operating roles, I am now at my next innings as coach and mentor to CEOs/founders - and their executive teams - of high growth companies.?

Often, we discover our personal truths only in hindsight. Recently, at a meditation retreat, I discovered the throughline of my career - to live, learn and practice at the edge of where tech meets users and markets. This is the edge where a company either catches fire to high growth or devolves into a chaotic swirl and attrition. From cloud computing, APIs, artificial intelligence and data platforms to SaaS apps in ecommerce, digital health and manufacturing, I have lived at the edge of tech and business throughout my career.

Also over the past decade, I discovered that I enjoy coaching - and I have had the pleasure of working with over a dozen founders, CEOs and CTOs, in virtually all these tech sectors. As an independent board director at an AI data services company, I found it gratifying to guide the company iMerit through its market entry into the U.S. Even for start-ups at seed stage, I have had a blast mentoring them via the Stanford’s StartX founder community for the past decade.???

Now I am simply shifting my full time focus to advisory/coaching and board roles.?

It is time to pay heed to my summons and work on my ikigai [the reason one gets up in the morning]. As part of this, I am also reigniting my newsletter: Marketing Patterns . Writing helps me distill my experience into insights that can hopefully help founders, CEOs and business leaders on the edge of explosive growth.

As I embark on this, I am most excited to meet new people on their business journeys, to renew past acquaintances that have lapsed due to time or the pandemic, and to refresh old friendships and to seek wisdom only old friends and mentors can share.?

I welcome any thoughts, suggestions or guidance you may have for me. Check out my newsletter, if you haven’t.? Send me a note. I am eager to hear from you.??

Anurag